Youth Jobs in the News

Below are news mentions of STL Youth Jobs, as well as other interesting articles about youth employment generally.

Thanks to $150,000 from JPMorgan Chase, about 45 at-risk young people in St. Louis will have summer jobs in the health care and information technology fields.

The donation will go toward paying the wages of some summer employees who have been selected by the STL Youth Jobs program for employment. In addition to a job, the nonprofit program provides local youth with job training, mentoring, financial literacy and continuing career support.

These young adults come from neighborhoods that typically have high rates of unemployment, poverty and violence.

It’s an important program because it removes a barrier for these at-risk youth to land a job, Hillary Frey, STL Youth Jobs executive director, told the Post-Dispatch Wednesday during its public announcement of its latest donation at Cardinal Glennon Children’s Hospital. Wednesday also marked the first day on the job for many STL Youth Jobs participants.

The application and interview process can be a “daunting experience if you’re never had a job,” Frey said. “We provide a handshake into a job.”

Civic Progress donated $614,000 to programs working mainly in the North St. Louis community to improve lives, the organization’s leaders announced at a press conference held today at the Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis’ north office.

“These organizations typify the commitment and vision our community needs to advance the priorities identified by the Ferguson Commission to drive economic growth and collaboration in the St. Louis region and make a tangible difference in people’s lives,” said George Paz, president of Civic Progress and chairman of Express Scripts.

Civic Progress is an organization of top executives from the largest companies in the St. Louis area. The donations are part of its larger commitment to investing $2 million over the next four years in organizations that are working on recommendations from the Ferguson Commission’s Forward Through Ferguson report.

“As youth unemployment is higher than any other working-age group, this lack of connectedness to employment has dire consequences for our region’s young people and our economy,” said Hillary Frey, executive director of STL Youth Jobs. “It is critical that the business community play a leading role in the investment of our future workforce.”